


A long, shitty week of Agent Maria Hill

by Virtawiiru



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, Other, fears are real even if there is someone to share them with, i feel like this whole story is a big angst, i guess, im sorry, not everyone can be saved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1908867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virtawiiru/pseuds/Virtawiiru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a long, shitty week for Agent Maria Hill, and the week was not over yet. Maria Hill knew she would die like this. She knew the last thing she would be doing, was argue with the Avengers  - most likely with Stark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The lost

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so i had this thing in my mind and just let the words flow and here's the result.

It had been a long, shitty week for Agent Maria Hill, and the week was not over yet.  
  
Tony Stark - Iron Man in his suit, was pacing back and forth around the other Avengers, speaking on the comm, "Come on Hill, we are all secure here, we have captured or killed all the bad guys, so come down so we can head back to HQ and go get a bite to eat. You're totally buying, it's not like you did any of the heavy lifting around here, all you did was hide in the building... what's taking so long, get your ass out here so we can get out of this town and leave this mess to the clean-up crew, let's just get back to New York. Pack your things faster, Hurry uuuuppp! How can you be the last one, all you did was yell and give orders and look at your monitors, you weren't even part of the actual battle -'',  
  
without letting Stark finish the sentence he would regret very soon, Maria Hill set her face to a brutal smirk that could almost kill anyone who saw it, sometimes it even made Natasha flinch, and with a cold tone in her voice, agent Hill answered him with no cracks in her voice " I think I saved your ass four or five times during this mission, Stark, so I -", but before Maria could finish her sentence she heard a thump from the stairs leading to the third floor she was in.  
  
"Didn't you guys say you secured the area, is someone -", she didn't have time to finish her question, before the gunfire began.  
  
The whole Avengers team, standing 50 meters from the building she was in, turned their heads towards the gunshots and flashes as bullets flew out of the windows.  
  
The whole scene was over in less than 5 seconds - before any of them could do anything but yell her name.  
  
After a couple of seconds they heard Hill's voice over the comm with a heavy breath "Ok, I think I got all three, Stark I thought you fucking said you got all of -" and then the comm went silent for a split second before the Avengers could hear " ...Oh, shit no, no, no, no, no", and then they saw the agent jump through one of the still unbroken windows, towards the taller building 10 feet away from her.  
  
She had her arms in front of her face for cover, but it didn't seem to be much of help. Before they could figure out why she had done it, why she had jumped out of the building, when there was no way she would survive the 15 feet drop, there was a huge explosion that knocked her to the wall of the building before her - it was just plain luck that she had dropped more than 5 feet before the shock wave caught up on her. And as she hit the wall of the building, she could hear the Avengers yell her name.  
  
  


\-- 

The whole scene, that took after the explosion, was over in less than 4 seconds.

Maria Hill knew she would die like this. She knew the last thing she would be doing, was argue with the Avengers - most likely with Stark, as he was the only one that seemed to pick up fights with her, it felt almost as if he enjoyed their arguments, and on occasion she didn't even mind that the two of them were arguing, it seemed to be a good bonding method for the two of them, after all and - and here they were. As she had predicted.

She felt a sharp, piercing pain in her back, as a glass from one of the blown windows hit her back and made it through her skin. Deep in her flesh. The pain made her eyes widen with fear as she gasped a breath of pain. She could feel small pieces of shattered glass going through her uniform, hitting her flesh and making small cuts all over her shoulders, arms and legs as she was flying towards the wall with a force she couldn't control anymore.

As she flew, she could feel the heat in her back. It was getting warmer and warmer, and she could hear the glass going around her, hitting the wall before her and the ground beneath her legs. It sounded magical, like music from the gods, like a tender sound of wind chimes in the soft, warm evening wind.

Before she was ready to let go of the sound of peace and comfort her ears started ringing. Louder and louder. In the background of the constantly louder ringing she heard some unclear mumbling - it was yelling coming from the Avengers, whom hadn't had time to react and were too damn far away to do anything to help her.

Maria Hill could feel her arm break as she hit the wall of the building. She couldn't breathe for a second, and then her lungs filled with fresh, crisp air and a warm, gentle wind rippled her hair tenderly on her scratchy face that was covered in cuts made by the glass. It felt like heaven. She could breathe. She had made it out. She was going to be OK.

It felt like minutes of freedom, as she took couple of deep breaths of fresh and clean air in her lungs, but then her lungs filled with the smell of gunpowder, smoke, fire and other unpleasant reeks and smell she was way too familiar with.

Then she couldn't feel anything anymore. Her body had started to give in on the pain and discomfort. She could no longer control her body, and as her arms fell to her side, limp and unresponsive, she began falling, back first, to the ground 9 feet below her.

As she started to fell, she saw the sky. It had been a beautiful day. Only a few clouds here and there. Nothing special of the weather, she just thought it was nice, for a change, to have such a warm day. Her field of vision was covered with red, yellow and orange as she saw the flames in the sky. It was almost beautiful, as the colors raced towards the sky, it felt like she could stare at them for hours. There was something so peaceful about the colors mixing up together, fading into nothing as they became smoke.

The darkness started to consume her. She could see the colors of grey before her. The colors of the smoke. Her mind started to drift off as she saw the building upside down before her eyes. She had jumped out of the building less than five seconds ago, but for her, it felt like an eternity - like she had been in the air for hours, like she could stay there, waiting for the night, waiting for... nothing. Just be there. It was somehow so quiet, as her ears had stopped ringing - so peaceful as she could no longer feel anything, just the heat of the fire.

But there was no building left. There was nothing. With her hazy and unfocused eyes, she could see nothing, nothing but black smoke, destruction and a pile of shattered bricks on the ground. Bricks that had once been a big 3 story building. A building where she had worked and helped the Avengers for hours. A building where she had seen the whole battlefield. It had been a perfect place for the field command center. There was nothing left of the building, and she would soon be following it, she would soon become part of the building, she would become part of the nothingness.

The last thing she could feel was a new, sharp pain as the glass in her back pierced through her body when she hit the cold, hard ground. She could almost see the glass coming out of her stomach with the last blink of her eyes. She slowly gave in to the darkness. She let it consume her. This is how she always knew she would die. She let the darkness absorb her mind. She gave in to the nothingness she was becoming. Her eyes closed as she took a long, last breath, and exhaled it slowly, with no pain, no fear, no despair as she became nothing. Just as she knew she would, one day. And today was that day.


	2. The curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So we start from the beginning of the week that leads to the events. Be patient. There will be a lot of stuff as we go along the chapters and story. I will be adding the chapters as I finish double checking them / writing them, haha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With joy in my heart, I am giving you guys a second chapter. I am posting this chapter before all of the chapters are ready, because **Lokisarmy0602** seemed to be so impatient. 
> 
> Haha, Just kidding, I just want to give you guys some reassurance that this story is going to be awesome.

**_ 4 days earlier_**

An alarm clock went off at 05:00. It was 05:01, when agent Maria Hill woke up in her room, located in the lower levels of the Helicarrier.  
  
Her room was fairly small, but it was livable. The room was actually bigger and more private than others, since she was there weeks at a time, and she was the Deputy Director, of course. Her room had the same bed as the other agents, but the good thing was that she didn't have to share the room with others. The junior agents had to share rooms with a roommate, to save space for other things on the Helicarrier. The Junior agents spent less time on the Helicarrier, too - they weren't there for weeks at a time like the Senior agents would be, so it was understandable that they had to share rooms.  
  
Maria Hill was awake. Her bed felt so good. It felt soft, warm and reassuring. She almost hoped she could stay in the bed for a while longer. But she couldn't, she had a Helicarrier to run.  
  
Her shift wouldn't start for another 2 hours as the night shift would end, so she could stay in the bed for another hour and still be in time for work, but she had other plans for the next couple of hours.  
  
Rather than staying in bed, she got up, took her workout clothes from the drawer in the corner of the room - a light grey tank top and black breeches, put them on and headed out.  
  
She was hopeful no one would be at the gym - everyone would either be at work or smart enough not to miss the little sleep they could get around the crazy work hours.  
  
The agent headed through the empty hallways towards the gym, and was glad to see the gym empty.  
  
"Maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all," she told herself as she started her workout.  
  
Then she realized what she had just said.  
  
Even if it was only in her mind, she knew she would regret saying it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid", she thought "GREAT, now I jinxed the day, probably the whole god damn week. I will probably get myself shot, or even worse, someone else killed."  
  
It was only Monday and she knew better.  
  
Before she could finish yelling at herself internally, with words that should not be said out loud, she saw her phone ringing on the stand next to machine she was currently killing out of frustration.  
  
"So much for the slow start of the week, with a good workout and a long breakfast in the cafeteria before the 16 hour shift."  
  
The shift that would include paperwork and nothing complicated.  
  
Things would get complicated.  
  
With a groan she answered the phone. It was Director Fury. When Director Fury called her, it usually wasn't a social call or to check in how everything was going. He knew better than to ask her if she could handle it.  
  
She could hear it in his voice, it was darker than usual. Things would be getting a lot worse.  
  
"Yep, I jinxed it," she thought as she ended the call and hit her forehead with the phone. It hurt like hell, so she wasn't dreaming. Damn, she wished she was. She could be in that comfy bed of hers. She could be dreaming of a better world, a place where she could be unemployed because there was no crisis to oversee, no worry of the planet called earth, no one to save from the cruelness of people, the cruelness of the mother nature. She could be in that warm, peaceful and reassuring safe place of hers.  
  
Sleeping.  
  
But no.  
  
She had a feeling she would get a headache later from the hit on her head, but she didn't have time to think about that now. She was on a full work mode.  
  
She had a new mission to oversee.  
  
She groaned as she opened the gym door. She headed towards her room to take a shower and change to her work uniform. The mission wasn't going anywhere so she could take her time, maybe she could go get something from the cafeteria before going to the Directors office.  
  
She had finished her last commanding job on Saturday night, and had hoped to be without a mission for longer than a day. After all, running the Helicarrier was plenty of work and she had a bigger pile of paperwork than she could fill in a week.  
  
She had overseen 9 missions in the past 2 weeks and she just wished for a short, fast - no people getting hurt -type of a mission. But the oncoming mission would not be any of those.  
  
Fury hadn't told her anything about the mission over the phone, he never did - just in case someone who wasn't supposed to be, was listening - a need-to-know type of a person - who had no business hacking the Helicarrier's security system. A person who did not listen - no matter how many times told, no matter how many times told to his AI. Oh god, She hoped this mission would not be so big that it required the Avengers.  
  
She had learned to like the Avengers as she had gotten to know them better over the years of working as their liaison, when Phil - Agent Coulson, a good friend of hers, had gotten himself killed back in the New York attack. He of course then came back to life, with Fury's help, and was now running other missions and another misfit unit of his choosing - and had left her to herd with the super hero squad.  
  
They actually worked well together and were all good friends and got along well, and most of the time they got along with her too. She could almost call them her friends. Almost.  
  
She loved her job, she wouldn't be doing it if she didn't. On some days, like on this Monday that had started the week, she wished she hadn't saved Fury's ass, twice, back in Madripoor, so he wouldn't have recruited her at all.  
  
Maybe it was just a defense mechanism inside of her that thought that. Maybe something bad was really going to happen. Maybe it was her mind telling her to run, and never look back.  
  
  


__

There was a knock on the door. Director Fury could hear the beeping sound as someone put the alarm code on the lock. " What took you so long? Wait, no. Don't answer that."

The Deputy Director wasn't going to answer the question anyway, even if he hadn't told her not to. She didn't have to justify the 15 minutes it had taken her to get there. And he knew it.

The Deputy Director took her usual seat - she took the chair that was on the opposite side of the Director's desk and moved it next to him.

As she sat down, slowly, with curious eyes looking at Fury, he opened his mouth.

"Have you ever seen that movie where the scientists try to bring back those creatures from extinction and then everything goes haywire the second they success?" Fury began with a questioning look on his face.

"Aww hell no, Sir" Maria thought - she actually said it out loud, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will add the next one ( I have already drafted it out), when i finish the next chapter after that, it is coming along very well as we speak, so no worries guys.
> 
> Don't worry, it will be better than this one, I promise.


	3. The plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, I feel so excited about this story. I feel so adventurous so I'm going to give you guys this chapter, before I finish the next one. Enjoy

**_ Still Monday _ **

Tony Stark was in his full Iron Man suit, when The Deputy Director entered the conference room of the Helicarrier. Stark was in a heated argument with Dr. Banner about the science side regarding the mutant creatures that were their next mission. They had to stop HYDRA before they would start destroying the world, preferably before they even successfully created the mutants in the first place.  
  
"Stark, have you read the contract we gave you?" Agent Hill asked as she took her seat on the other side of the table and put down the files she had carried in with her.  
  
She was looking at her tablet and she didn't take her gaze out of it when Stark answered, "Yes, of course I have read it, Agent Hill. What seems to be the problem on this given time."  
  
"Remember the last time you wore the suit in the carrier, Stark?" Maria asked as she lifted her gaze towards the ceiling, "Remember when we had to get four people to get you down from the ceiling and then we had to repair the damage and the rooms were out of use for days as they repaired the floor and the ceiling?"  
  
"But-"  
  
"Please don't make me call Pepper -"  
  
"Come on Hill, It was just that one time! I promise I will be more careful this time" Stark began, but was cut off by the look Clint gave him.  
  
It was a look of shame and knowledge. He had been at the other end of the Deputy Directors anger, and it was not a pleasant place to be.  
  
For Clint, of course, it was a normal thing. After all, he was the reason for over half of the rules in the book. If you opened the book and pointed at any of the unusual or unnecessary rules - the ones you would never even think existed in the first place, you could find the guilty person sitting next to Natasha Romanov and Thor - the reason for the rules being there was no other than, Clint Barton.  
  
Sometimes Maria thought he was doing it on purpose, she was sure he had some big, secret bet going on.  
  
'How many new rules could the Hawkeye add to the book after the boogie boarding incident that took place a couple of years ago', was the most likely bet, Maria thought. There even was a 'Absolutely no boogie boarding on the Helicarrier' -sign on the flight deck. They passed that damn sign everyday on their way in and out of the Helicarrier.  
  
"Fine, I will take it off after this meeting", Stark commented and returned his gaze back to Dr. Banner to continue their short cut discussion.  
  
"Okay. So has everyone read the mission files? We do not have much intel at this moment, but the Black Widow and Hawkeye will get us all the information we will need to bring down this HYDRA lab, preferably before they manage to do something crazy. Simple information gathering. In and out before anyone notices you guys, you know the drill." Agent Hill started as she looked at both Clint and Natasha. They both gave her a small nod and then looked at each other with a small grin on their faces that lasted only for so long that Maria was able to spot it.  
  
"When we get more information about what they are doing in the lab, we will do the final mission plan and briefing, but for now, Dr. Banner and Stark," she continued, raising her voice slightly at the end, and in turn looked at the two, now very silent, people at the other side of the table - the other one blushing slightly, which was actually kind of endearing considering that he would be turning to his green-self at some point of the week, probably.  
  
She continued, "If the two of you would be so kind and join the science department and help them out with the preparations for the mission, and Thor if you'd like to join them, you might have some Asgardian knowledge of the creatures they are trying to recreate in the lab."  
  
"It would be my pleasure, lady Hill", the god said and gave a little nod to the science buddies around the table.  
  
"AND, by letting the three of you go into the labs.. together.. at the same time, does NOT mean that you will have a 'who gets the biggest explosion' contest, again."  
  
As Tony, Bruce and Thor looked at each other, Maria could see the internal grin they all shared with their eyes.  
  
"Stark, I swear to-- Fury's eye patch - if I hear even a small 'puff' noise coming from there, I will take you to the flight deck and drop you to the water 10,000 feet below us, and I will make sure ALL of the suits are incapable of helping you out - you know I can make that happen."  
  
As Banners face turned even redder than it already was, Tony's face turned into a grim expression, that probably used to get him everything he wanted - until he met Pepper of course.  
  
When his puppy eyes didn't do the work, he settled for a dissatisfied 'fine' and looked at The Captain for a change. Teasingly he asked,  
  
"So, what's The Captain fancy-pants over there going to do then."  
  
Before any of them had a chance to answer, The Black Widow joined the conversation with a deadpan look on her face "He will be planning the mission with Agent Hill, like always, so they can keep your ass out of trouble for a couple more weeks - so we can hear that pretty voice of yours again." and then Natasha turned to Steve, and now she had a brief grin on her face.  
  
Before Tony could comment on the cold treatment he was getting from the ladies, Clint finally spoke, "So, are we all done here? Natasha and I get the detailed mission plan for the break-in later today, right?"  
  
The Hawkeye stood up, as he got the silent nod agreement from Maria and under his breath he whispered to Natasha, "Maybe we should call off the Sugar-Nail-Nest Prank, she seems to have enough to deal with, now that Tony is onboard."  
  
Natasha gave the bird a small nod and joined him to the hallway to cancel the preparations for the prank they had been planning all afternoon. It was cancelled only until they were done with the mission, of course - there was no way they would be wasting such a good prank.  
  
As Bruce and Tony got up, having returned to their previous conversation, heading to the science labs, Thor followed them looking excited to be able to help out the Midgard yet again. Maria could hear Thor ask what the mighty Science Buddies needed him to do, and Maria tried to cover her snort.  
  
Steve was the only one left in the room with Maria. He looked at her as she returned her gaze back to her tablet and began scrolling it down. She was reading the mission information for a thousandth time, probably, Steve thought.  
  
"So Steve, you want to help me with the mission plans?" She asked without taking her eyes off the tablet.  
  
Even after all the time they had spent together, all the conversations they had had, all the dinners, nights spent together walking down the city of New York telling stories to each other of the old times, he still managed to blush when she caught him looking at her.  
  
"Would you.. I mean.. Do you want to grab something to eat, before we make sure everyone makes it out alive on this mission?"  
  
  


__

As Steve and Maria entered the Helicarrier's cafeteria, they didn't gather many looks. It was so common thing these days, that people had stopped looking surprised by the view of the Ice Queen of the ship and the Golden Boy of America eating together.

Most of the time, like this time, they worked on the plans as they ate. It wasn't exactly Steve's favorite idea of a date, but it worked for them well. For others they looked like they were distant, just working together, and they ruled it as a 'must-work-together' event, since she was the liaison for the Avengers.

But for them it was just a way to get know to each other better. How their minds worked, what they liked - they had even once discussed about the best way to catch a bird, and lock it in a cage - before it could do any damage to the house it had gotten into, uninvited - at 3:30 am - on a Saturday.

They hid the discussions well and mixed them with work, so no one really bothered to follow them.

But now the words coming out of their mouths were purely for work. They had to figure out the best ways for The Widow and Hawkeye to enter the premises and gather the intel they needed - how far HYDRA was on the project, how many guards they had, and whatever they might come against as they took the place out of its business. They figured it would take them one to two days to gather all of the personnel's working schedules, and make sure there would be no surprises on the way in for the Avengers.  
They would do the final takedown after every worker had entered the premise, to make sure no one would continue their work.

As they looked at the floor plans of the area - two of the buildings they believed to be occupied by HYDRA, and an abandoned 3 story building next to them, they made notes and conclusions for the best ways to enter the main lab in the far end of the street - without anyone noticing.

They came to the conclusion that the air vents - it was ALWAYS the air vents, why the bad guys never thought about the air vents - were the best way in to take a peek at the things below the surface.

They made plan A, B, C, D and E and an extra F just in case everything went to a total clusterfuck.

Then they started to make the plan for the takedown. They would get the needed information from Natasha and Clint about the times, personnel, guards and what they were doing, preferably in the next two days.

The takedown would be on a Friday morning, after they were all sure about everything.

They would get the Avengers in, Natasha and Clint first for the main lab, again through the air vents. Bless the air vents. The other Avengers would get the guards down outside of the place, and move towards the main lab as they went.

Maria would be joining in on the OP, like pretty much always.

It was a lucky break they found the empty building near the site - they just had to confirm that it was empty, before she could set up the surveillance there. She could oversee things better there, than in the Helicarrier, and if needed, she could come in for the backup - she was a great backup.

They made different scenarios of the events, calculated the possibility of casualties, the civilians that might be somewhere close - everything that could go wrong in the mission.

Well, almost everything.

By the time they got everything ready, they had moved to Maria's office.

She then called in the Widow and Hawkeye for the briefing.

The briefing was short, it was serried but it contained all the information they needed. They had all the things they needed.

They would be leaving at 19:00, and they had two days to get all they needed.

It would be an easy task for them, so neither of them protested the time limit they had.

And as Barton and Romanov made their way to the Quinjet that would be taking them to the mission location, they passed the Boogie Boarding sign once again, and once again, Clint grinned at it.


	4. The wait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first part of the mission. The information gathering. With a hint of... Friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I have no idea where all this came from, but this is seems to be an air vent appreciation chapter. God Bless The Air Vents. AND I wanted to give you guys some Natasha and Clint action.

**_ Tuesday, Wednesday _ **

Maria Hill received a phone call. It was Director Fury, once again.

"Remember that incident last week when HYDRA had the idea of turning cats into those soldiers with the big ass claws, kind of like the ones Wolverine has, and then we - well, yeah, the WSC found out about that incident,"

"How long, Sir?"

"I'll be back before Friday, I left all the mission files you need on your desk - don't worry, you get to enjoy your planned time with the Avengers."

 

___

The first part of the mission was actually pretty fast and easy for the agents Barton and Romanov. Kind of like their very first mission together - well, if you didn't count the fact that during their fist mission everything went... well.. pretty much clusterfuck the second they landed.

This time everything went so much better. They trusted each other, they worked together, they followed orders, and they followed the plans, gathered the intel they needed, and got out of there in one piece.

Well, it was SHIELD after all, so the words 'followed the plans' had a different meaning, of course.

And thank - Fury's eye patch - for the air vents.

Air vents were a blessing for the people in the mighty place called earth.

And sometimes Clint would like to kiss the person who invented them.

 

___

"Air vents,"

"God bless the air vents," Hawkeye gasped as he took a breath of air in his lungs.

It had been a close call for them. They had almost got caught.

It had been just two days earlier, when the Black Widow and Hawkeye had been planning a harmless prank in the Helicarrier. But now, things were anything but harmless.

A day ago they had followed the workers from distance. They had memorized their names, confirmed their ID's, gathered all the information missing from the plans - places that would be hard to breach, people that might get in the way, the period of time it would take to get from place A to B, how they would avoid the guards, and everything they would need to get into the lab. Everything they would need for the final takedown.

A day might seem too short, for some people, to gather information, but for the Widow and the Bird it was more than enough.

They would even get a good night sleep before getting to the physical part of the job.

A good night sleep, of course, was just a say in the line of work they did. It was just a concept of words that meant they would not stay awake for days.

It just meant that they could rest for a while. That they could close their eyes and get ready for what was coming.

 

___

It was 5 am, when they had arrived at the location of their own choosing. They would be getting into the lab from the far end corner of the premises. The building they presumed to contain the lab was near the end. 

There, behind the building, was also an air vent, that kept the place so fresh with air. The air vent was in the corner that had no guards roaming in circles. A lucky break for them.

As Clint lead them to the woods near the building, he was cautious of any sound he might encounter. They did not have any backup close by, so they couldn't blow their cover, and more importantly, they had to stay under the radar of the guards, because even if they silenced the guard that noticed them, the mission would take a big turn to the plan F. The HYDRA guards would know that something was up, and start the preparations of disposal. And by disposal, they meant _disposal_.

So as the Widow and Hawkeye kneeled silently behind the berry bush, watching the movements in the still dark area ahead of them, they stood still, silent, taking only a few, even breaths.

The air was surprisingly warm at so early hour. It was still fairly dark, and the moon was still in the sky. Clint could almost see the red hair shine in the moonlight, he could see the shivers of orange in the hair from up close. Clint had always liked those shades of her hair. It looked magical, surreal and beautiful in the moonlight.

Usually at this time of the morning, when they weren't on a mission and they hadn't been able to sleep, they would go to the flight deck of the Helicarrier. The flight deck looked magical during the night.

It was so peaceful, so fresh and silent. They would put on warm clothes, and just climb on the highest point of the Helicarrier and lay down. Side by side. Their eyes would gaze into the sky, as it, filled with millions and millions of stars, would start turning into the colors of the wind.

Into the colors of the morning. The colors of the peaceful warmness that would consume them when they needed it the most. After a bad night, it always calmed them, as they held hands and listened each other's breath starting to steady, breath by breath.

The nightmares would sail away from their minds as the stars would began to fade away. One by one. And the clear sky would turn to red. All shades of red, all shades of the wind and warmness in their hearts.

The sun would come up. They had survived another night, together.

But now, they didn't have the pleasure of enjoying the fading stars. They had to become the monsters in their dreams. Once again.

They made sure everything was going according to the plans. As they moved from their hideout place, making sure they didn't make a sound as they moved. They were apprehensive. It was a good thing, Natasha thought.

The day she didn't worry about the safety of others, the safety of herself, she was in a big trouble. They all would be.

They made their way to the air vent and it took Clint less than five seconds to get the metallic cover off the dirty wall of the building.

The building looked bigger from up close. But they knew where they would be heading. Natasha crawled into the narrow area. It was surprisingly roomy. She didn't have to wait for Clint to follow her, she knew he would.

As Clint closed the cover behind them he started crawling after Natasha. He could feel the air moving in his hair and in his face. It was a tender bliss in his eyes. But he didn't have time to waste. He caught up with Natasha. They had a long way to go, and they had to make their way slowly, steadily, quietly.

It took them nearly twenty minutes to reach their destination. They had been lost at one point, because the floor plans SHIELD had, had been faulty and old. But they had made their way to the end of their journey. Without anyone spotting them.

There was already people in the building, in the lab. It was a large area, but they had a good view of the things from above. The lab looked neat and clean. It didn't have any creepy looking creatures roaming free, and it smelled clean. The area was filled only with computers, tables and shelves everywhere. It looked like they were still at the theoretical side of the project.

They stayed still, next to one another, and watched. Watched as the scientist worked. They made notes into their minds about the things in the lab. About the things Dr. Banner and Stark had mentioned they should check out.

They stayed there for hours. Waited for the people to swap shifts. Waited for the time when there was no one at the lab. They had to get a closer look at things, to make sure they wouldn't run into some mutated creatures during the takedown.

SHIELD was sneaky in a way. They always sent a pre-check-up group to gather a little information before they would take the place down. Almost every time they took a HYDRA place down, they destroyed the works, before SHIELD could get their hands onto them. But SHIELD learned from its mistakes. And so it was Natasha who would have the honor of stealing important information from them, before they would even notice that SHIELD had interest in them.

When the lab was finally empty - the people had departed to their breaks and shift changes, the Widow had 5 minutes to gather few files to the special SHIELD memory stick. It was Stark Technology, god bless his metallic heart, and it would do all the work for her.

She just had to make her way down from the vents unnoticed, and put the memory stick in.

She did so, and as it started to do its magic, Natasha took a closer look of the place.

She kept her other eye on the door, and made sure no one would be getting in when she was still on the ground.

Clint would warn her the second he heard something from the hallway.

As the minutes passed, it seemed that the magic stick had problems to breach the security system. It was starting to unsettle both of them.

When the stick finally made it's breakthrough they had been there already 2 minutes. They had less that 3 to get more information before they had to get out of there.

Clint, still at the ceiling, was keeping his eyes at the door.

The memory stick had started to gather important files.

And then they heard the scratch in the hallway outside the door.

It took 5 seconds for Natasha to snatch the stick out of the computer, that returned to its previous state without any indication of even being touched, and then she was on her way back to the air vents.

Clint reached out his hand for her to grab on and started lifting her, as they heard the lock being opened from the other side of the door.

They shushed each other as the adrenaline pumping through their veins was making them move faster, it was a good thing for once. The second Natasha was once again inside the vents and the metallic case was back on its previous location, the door opened.

Three scientist wandered into the lab, making their ways to their assigned positions. They all seemed to be comfortable with their surroundings and they didn't see anything out of place and returned to their work.

Natasha and Clint stayed at the vents for a couple of minutes, to make sure everything had gone smoothly. That they hadn't break their cover. They laid still in the vents. Letting their breathing steady, slowly, making no noise as they breathed in and out.

After a while, as they were sure they would get away unharmed they started moving again.

Clint was now first. He would make sure no one would be there when they got out.

As they made the long way back to the back side of the building, Clint thanked the air vents once again in his mind, and spoke those words quietly to Natasha. Natasha had to agree with him. God bless the air vents.

They made it out of the vents, and Clint close the cover once again. They ran to the woods. Their hearts still pounding and adrenaline getting back in their bodies. They ran, a long time. It made Natasha feel free. She could feel the air in her hair, the sweat that was starting to cover her forehead. They had made it out in one piece.

They would be forwarding all the information to SHIELD when they got to the apartment they had been sleeping in the night before. They were sure that HYDRA was only at the beginning of actually working out how to bring creatures to life from extinction, so they were certain that they didn't need any extra agents on the mission. The Avengers could bring down the lab, nice and easy.

But for now, Natasha enjoyed the feeling she had. The feeling of being free, the feeling of success, the feeling of being in control. Running was that safe haven for Natasha, like the air vents were for Clint.

One might think that air vents were just a way for air to get to places, but they were so much more than that, for Clint at least.

They were a place where he had always felt safe. A place where he knew he could be in power of his surroundings.

A place where he went every time he was unsure of the space around him. Air vents were the protection for him he had needed when he was a child. The protection he hadn't had back then. A protection he could touch with his hands, a protection that would not fade away, protection that would lead only to safety. It would lead him away from the horrible things. It had led him to shelter and safety so many times during his time with SHIELD, and before that. The air vents would be there for him - as sad as it sounded, he could always trust the air vents to save him.

Just like he trusted Natasha to save him when he needed her. Just like she had kept him safe ever since he had brought her in, and the second they had become partners. They had trust for each other no one could breach.

A trust that could only be gained by friendship, hope, destruction, loss, rescues and kept promises. And a friendship like theirs could only be the product of trust, waiting and hope.

Hope for a better tomorrow.

Hope for a better future.

Hope for a survived past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I have no idea how I could possibly write so emotional stuff about air vents... I think I need psychologist help.


	5. The hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile in the Helicarrier everything hadn't gone so smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just need to share this. Here are the notes I wrote before starting this chapter. The goals I had for this chapter.
> 
> "KILL SOME SHIELD PPL SO THE ENDING THING WILL BE BETTER < \--- MAKE IT RIP THEIR HEARTS OUT."
> 
> Bwahahahah, I'm sorry.

**_ Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday _ **

  


It had been 35... 36 hours, since the Deputy Director had slept. She had been running the Helicarrier, and she had been overseeing the three missions Fury had left her in charge of when he had been otherwise occupied by the World Security Council.  
  
At this given moment in time, The Deputy Director was on the flight deck.  
  
She needed air.  
  
Clean, fresh air.  
  
Fury had told her how long he would be out of reach, he did so every time he left her in charge. But sometimes it was all too much. Sometimes she was glad he was the Director, and not her. But at times like these, it didn't matter. At times when things didn't work out, it didn't matter who was in charge of it all.  
  
They lost good SHIELD agents almost daily, weekly at least, all around the world. It was a thing that would hunt Deputy Director Maria Hill in her dreams, in her nightmares - every time she closed her eyes - every single time she saw a child without a parent by their side.  
  
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw all the destruction, all the blood, all the bodies - lying on the ground, eyes closed, given up - lifeless. Their eyes were closed, but those bruised, heavy and empty eyes seemed to be screaming for help. Help that would not be in time for those closed eyes.  
  
Help that would not be in time for any of them.  
  
She could sense the fear in the people. In her people. Even when she didn't see them. She could feel them, she could feel their last moments of awareness fade away, slowly, as they gave in to the darkness. She could see the fear in those people's eyes slowly fade away. But it never left completely. It didn't have time to leave them, not completely. Those people had died.  
  
Fear in their last breaths of air.  
  
She could see, she could feel the fear in her own eyes, too.  
  
A little fear was not a bad thing. But when those fears became real - when the fears, the ones she had to see, had to encounter, had to keep out of other people's lives - when those fears became true, when those fears were too much, they made her crumble.  
  
She didn't break down before anyone's watchful eyes. She knew better, than to give in on her feelings. She had to keep the place running, she had to keep her calm. She had to be the rock that wouldn't sink when thrown in the deep end of the water.  
  
The person who wouldn't fall apart during events like these.  
  
She had to be that person, that one person who would get the fault of the words she could hear before her - the blame that would make others feel better.  
  
She would be okay with it. She had to.  
  
But for now, she had to gather herself, once again, for the duty she had coming before her. She had to breach inside of her own mind, she had to repair all the barracks that had started leaking. She had to shut down all the emotions, so she could continue her work. She had to be the lone wolf, the wolf that would get in the middle of the butchery that was unfolding. The wolf that would stay calm, making the others calm, yet again.  
  
Calm, but only for a while.  
  
Just until they could prevent any further damage.  
  
She had to be that wolf, who survived by itself, but others relayed upon.  
  
It was a tough place to be, in a world like this. In the cruel universe that was showing it's true nature, once again.  
  
The world was demonstrating the things it was capable of. It was showing all the dark, powerful - great, but yet so devastating things it could do. The things humans, the wisest living things on the planet earth, could do to one another - the fatal, disturbing things, not the few good ones they had to offer once in a while.  
  
The wind was blowing through her hair. The air felt colder than it should have, it was almost as if the souls, the spirits of the lost ones, were making their difference before her eyes. Even after their bodies couldn't anymore, they were still trying to make a difference before her, but she just couldn't see them yelling at her, shouting before her eyes, trying to get her attention. Trying to tell her, that the things that had happened weren't her fault - that there was no way she could have predicted the events that had happened in the past days, that they were as surprised of the things as she was.  
  
They tried to tell her, that they would be alright in the afterlife. That she didn't have to take care of them anymore - that duty was now in the greater hands.  
  
She didn't have to be sad for them, with them - they would be alright.  
  
They tried to tell her that they would forgive her.  
  
The Deputy Directors eyes were closed, not because the sun was shining in front of her eyes, not because she thought it would make things better, not because she thought she could close her eyes and wake up from the nightmare she was in. The nightmare that had started in the beginning of the week. The nightmare that she had started.  
  
Her eyes weren't closed because of any of those reasons.  
  
Her eyes were closed, because there was tears pouring down her cheeks. The cold evening wind would dry those tears before they would fall from her trembling jaw. The souls before her would make sure the tears were seen. That the tears were real, and that they meant the right things. They would dry those tears as they reached their final destination, as the teardrops showed the true meaning behind them.  
  
The teardrops were a legend in the wind, a whisper in the darkness, a desolating poem in the last light of the long day, that was becoming to an end.  
  
The teardrops that were filled with agony, torment and suffering were also filled with hope.  
  
But hope was the last thing in the long list of meanings behind those tears pouring down the soft cheeks.  
  
The day was ending before those closed eyes. Those beautiful eyes that had so many times shown the pain of the past, the suffering of the future, and the despair that was happening in the present.  
  
A small raindrop, a drop so tender she almost didn't feel it at all, hit the end of her soggy nose. That single raindrop was so small, so fragile, and yet so full of freedom, ease and purity that would rinse the earth from its misery, once again.  
  
That single raindrop blended in, together, with the tears still pouring from the beautiful eyes. At first the drop had felt cold, it had made her shiver, but now it had joined together to that familiar warmness.  
  
But it had already left its mark on her.  
  
Even if there was nothing she could do to bring happiness to that child, who had lost everything that day. That child who wouldn't know his parents, her brother or sister, his family - because she had failed at her job, she still had that very same job to do, a responsibility to fill.  
  
There would be a time to mourn the losses, there would be a time to make sure the lost ones were taking care of, but for now, she needed to keep fighting, for the ones still defending the goodness of the earth. The goodness of the people still living in the present.  
  
That one, single most powerful raindrop, had given her hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for the lost souls wandering in the air around the people, living in the destruction of the world that was showing itself in a new light before their eyes, before her eyes.  
  
That one drop of rain was all she needed to gather up her walls, once again.  
  
And then she was ready to become that lone wolf, once more.  
  
Once more, for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now the question that unfolds before us, is, did I manage to do what I set myself to do?
> 
>  
> 
> Okay, so you guys are going to have to wait for a little bit longer than a day, because the next chapter is going to be so long and stuff, so I need more time. Be patient and leave Comments. :)


	6. The fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle is upon us, the end is coming closer and closer - chapter by chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you **BellaPaige88** , for your comment (Chapter 5), it gave me new ideas on how to rip your heart out, guys.
> 
>  _Okay so about the beginning of this chapter._ Umm, I made this story a while back and kind of leaned into it for this beginning, well pretty much this whole story (at least bits and pieces) as the background stuff, so feel free to read it, if you haven't already. **[Worthless](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1890645)**
> 
>  
> 
> Oh, and sorry for the extra long wait, I had some personal stuff to deal with. But here is the next chapter. Enjoy.

**_ Thursday, Friday _ **

  


  
  
Deputy Director Maria Hill would be getting around 6 hours of sleep before the takedown of the HYDRA lab would begin. She would, of course, not sleep much during those 6 hours.  
  
She knew that. She knew she would have the nightmares, once again. She knew the second she let her guard down, the second she closed her eyes for longer than a minute, the fears would take over her. The fears would consume her, the fears she had seen during that day, during that week - the fears in her past, in her present and in her future. Fears that were real, even if you had someone to share them with. Those fears would consume her once again.  
  
She knew what she would see.  
  
She wished she didn't.  
  
All she wished for now, was to rest her eyes for a while. She just needed to get through this week. This day, filled with agony all around her. Inside her. Through this dreadful night.  
  
The night, it was beautiful, in a way. The stars were shining through the cloudy sky, and it was raining. The rain was a nice thing, it felt like it was washing the earth from its misery, once again. It gave her some comfort. Some hope. But she knew it wouldn't help her sleep.  
  
She knew that if she called Steve, he would get there in a heartbeat. But she needed to be alone for a while. She needed to get through the nightmares without him, the fears, the pain. She needed to gather herself without him. He would be there for her when she needed it, but she still wasn't sure how she felt about that. All that time they spent together, it was magical, she liked him, loved him. She had loved him for a long time now. Ever since their first walk on the streets of New York eight months ago. Before that, of course, they had been friends, but nothing more. And then it had changed. After a rough mission for both of them.  
  
But she was still uncertain.  
  
She hated that feeling.  
  
She wished she could share her darkest secrets with him, from her past and her present, and maybe someday in her future she would, she could. But she still felt so alone at times. There was nothing she could do about that. She felt scared of the feeling he gave her, when their eyes met. It felt so unusual for her, so new. She was that lone wolf so many days, weeks at a time, for her work, for everything in her life - she had to be. She felt like she couldn't turn that feeling off sometimes. She had to survive on her own. Be that lone wolf, even around him.  
  
He knew that she wouldn't, couldn't, reveal him the bad things in her work, and especially not when they were at work. She wanted to keep those things at work, and as a secret, and he respected that. But he could see it in her eyes, at times. Sometimes he just wished he could lock her in his arms and never let go, that he could shield her from the fears in her mind, and never let her drift back into the dark world. But he knew that she wouldn't let him do that. Not yet at least.  
  
He had tried that once, and she had shut down completely.  
  
She knew that someday she would be completely comfortable around him, around the fact that he was hers, and she was his. Sometimes she wished that day would come sooner, she was so tired of her own fears.  
  
But for now, she just had to get through this night. She still had 5 hours before she had to get up once again, to save the world, with The Avengers.  


 

\--

The rain had stopped when Maria Hill woke up from her brief sleep. The air smelled fresh, clean, and a lot warmer than in the past few days. It was going to be a nice, warm day.

The last briefing would be in a couple of hours before the takedown.

Now she needed a good breakfast. Time to think. Time to prepare herself.

She ate well, gathered her thoughts, went through all the mission files once again, just to make sure everything was going ok.

Then came the time for the last briefing with the Avengers. This time the group was serious. There was no unnecessary chatter, no jokes flying around, and it was professionalism at its best - well as good as you could get with Stark.

They went through the mission plans, all the scenarios, all the things they had prepared.

The air around them seemed to contain excitement, caution and waiting as they boarded the Quinjet. And once again, Clint smirked at the sign in the flight deck, but this time it was only a brief one, it was only made out of a habit.

The flight to the mission site was filled with chatter, mostly work related. Everyone pitched in ideas and comments and last minute changes on the plans. Even Tony was paying attention to the surroundings around him.

They landed on the rooftop of the house where The Widow and Hawkeye had been couple of days ago. They unloaded all the equipment and started walking towards the HYDRA labs.

As they walked through the woods, they spread into their groups. The Black Widow and Hawkeye in one, as they went in first. Thor and Dr. Banner stayed back with The Captain and Iron Man, waiting for Natasha to give them the green light to engage, and Maria sneaked into the warehouse building Clint and Natasha had confirmed to be empty.

As the Deputy Director secured all the floors of the building, she listened the chatter coming from the comms. It was kind beautiful to hear the Avengers communicating so well together, even before the mission had officially started. It made her a little proud of herself, that she had managed to get them to become closer than they were in the past. They shared all the sightings they encountered, they spread tips about the guards, about the best ways to keep quiet as far into the fight as possible and they were acting like a TEAM. Fury had been right, they had made this thing work. And the Deputy Director was happy to be part of it, at least for now.

As The Black Widow and Hawkeye entered the air vents once again, they were now equipped with a gear to kill. They were master assassins, so they wouldn't need much to silence the whole place before anyone would notice them, but they still carried their preferred weapons. Clint had his trusted bow on his back, and Natasha had her guns and knives.

They made their way in the vents and stopped for a moment on every cover they found. They looked at the people going below them. They assessed their threat levels, and counted the people. Then they moved on to the next cover. They forwarded the information to the rest of the group that were still holding back at the nearby woods.

When they finally arrived at their final location, the main lab they had been in a couple days ago and left in a hurry, Agent Maria Hill was ready with her surveillance equipment and she was now in charge of the commands.

She was a master at collecting all the information needed to make a decision, just in the seconds they needed to be made.

Then Natasha and Clint were given the green light, the mission was a go.

They had entered the lab the second they heard the words of confirmation and were now doing their job at making sure the things in the lab would not get out of there with the wrong people. It was something that seemed to come easily for the pair, but every time they had to kill someone it added the blood in their hands, it added the nightmares they would see. But it was their job, it was who they were. It was who they were made. They were master assassins. And they were damn good at what they did.

Within seconds they had taken out four of the lab techs, and moved to the long hallway behind the door that they had wished to stay shut just a couple of days ago.

Now Maria gave Steve the mark to go. He would take out the nearby guards, because he could do it quietly. The second he would be seen, the rest of them would be joining in on the battle.

Steve silenced three of the guards near the premises, they were doing their rounds around the houses. He never killed, unless it was necessary, but it was a battle after all, normally he made sure they would not be getting up anytime soon, but this time they had to be certain of it.

And then things started to become complicated.

One of the guards further down the road had seen the events and had used his walkie-talkie to inform about the breach.

That was the moment the Deputy Director ordered the rest of the Avengers to join in on the fun.

It was going to be a long fight.

As Maria gathered information from The Widow and Hawkeye about the way they made inside of the lab building, she gave orders to Stark about the new batch of guards roaming through her computer screen from the other side of the premises.

As Stark headed that way, Steve was left with Thor to fight off the fifteen men left on the far end of the premises.

Banner had Hulked out the second he had been given the 'green light'. By this time, the Avengers had gotten used to the big, green monster roaming around with them. And the Hulk had learned to trust those people. He never hurt them. He never engaged them, even at his worst.

He trusted them to keep him safe, that they would make sure no one tried to hurt him with a force he could not handle. It was something that Dr. Banner was afraid of at the beginning - would the hulk get used to the idea of not being completely alone with the anger around him, inside him. But after time it had gotten easier. The Hulk had started to trust on people. The Hulk was not alone in the world. The hulk had protection with him, and he was going to protect those who protected him.

Now the Hulk was taking the gunfire to his muscled torso, and as the bullets kept popping out of his torso like rubber balls that were thrown into a wall, he was throwing a golf cart towards the fire. And then the gunfire stopped from that direction. The Hulk had grabbed the first thing that came to his sight, the golf cart that was used to get around the premises faster than walking, and thrown it. The HYDRA guards hadn't had any time to react before they were crushed beneath the force that crushed their yet so fragile human bones'.

As the Hulk encountered more fire towards himself, Thor joined in to help him.

He and The Captain had finished knocking down the guards only taking minor bruises here and there.

Steve had headed towards the second HYDRA building, with the Iron Man for air support, and the Deputy Director had ordered Thor to help the Hulk.

There was no way that the Hulk would lose the fight against the HYDRA guards, but Maria knew that he still needed, appreciated the cover, the protection and help.

Thor was a great warrior. All the things he had been through, he still was fighting for the good of the universe. Just like a real warrior would, like the god of thunder should. He truly was worth the Mjolnir, just like he had always been. On this given mission, he didn't use the lighting power the hammer possessed. This mission was to keep under the wraps, so the innocents would not get in the way of harm. There was only a couple of houses near the location they were in, but there could be civilians close by, if they saw the lighting's and heard the things, the awful noises from the people in the battlefield. People were curious of the things they found to be new, the things they hadn't noticed before. And that was always a thing that got civilians killed, even if they took all the precautions they could, even if the Heroes tried to save them.

But this time they were lucky, so far at least. The Deputy Director had kept her eyes on the monitors that were, amongst the other things, monitoring all the corners of the HYDRA premises. Unnoticed of course.

"Rogers, you doing okay in there?" The Deputy Director asked, as Captain America made his way to the second building.

Before Steve had the change to answer her, she continued with an alarming voice to the Iron Man, "Stark, you have four guys behind you, they are about to use the IronCrasher, move fast or take them down before they fry your suit."

"Why does it have to be called IronCrasher, it has only worked on me that one time, I updated the suits with JARVIS to handle those things, well at least to keep them from crashing completely - we are still working on the complete blockage, but we are getting there," the man in the metal suit babbled as he used one of his smaller missiles to take the squad down.

"Steve, there are two guys coming from your right, they have vests, you need to take them down, " The Deputy Director continued, and The Captain did as were told, and continued his way with the Iron Man beside him.

Steve was a great leader, a great soldier and a person everyone trusted their life with. A person Maria Hill trusted her life with, everyday. Steve was the person she loved. The person she wished to share her life with.

But on the battlefield those things were left behind, they both had to set their feelings aside to make the environment safer for the rest of the Avengers. The Avengers had to trust that they would not lose their balance if something were to happen to one of them. And so far it had worked. And it would continue be like that. They kept their emotions aside until the missions would end, until they were alone, together, until they were sure that everyone else was alright.

When Steve finally entered the second building, Tony was left behind, he was keeping the bad guys from entering the building, one less thing for The Captain to worry about.

One might think, that killing a person is easy, even with a gun or a knife, but killing someone is never easy, as all of the people in SHIELD knew. The building that The Captain entered, was thankfully just one floored building with minimal security, so he was able to disarm them with minor injuries for himself and the bad guys - well except the one who had yelled 'hail HYDRA' and decided that it was better to die, than to be captured. Steve had made his death a quick one. Although he preferred not to use lethal force, he still carried his gun, and on this given individual, he had to use it. It was a clean shot that killed him instantly.

"Honestly, I have seen The Jurassic Park movies, I hate working in here, just take me in, please." Said one of the employees Steve encountered. And a few others joined in on him, and so Steve locked them into one of the rooms and made sure they would not be getting out of there. They would wait there the ten-fifteen minutes it would take for him to clear the building.

Thor had left Banner and Stark to deal with the few guards left in the outside, as the Deputy Director kept saving Stark's ass when he got distracted by something, at times. It didn't take them long to take out the rest of the people on the outside, and then Stark was left on guard. To make sure there would be no surprises coming for the ones inside the buildings, much to his displeasure of being left out.

The Black Widow and Hawkeye had cleared three of the four story building, and had not encountered anything that they could not handle, yet.

There were still people missing from the list that Maria Hill had, people who were supposed to be on the premises.

"There are still 9 guys left, so be careful guys," she commented on the comms and continued her search for the people still missing.

"I got 3 locked in the broom closet, they said 'they had seen the Jurassic Park movies'," The Captain commented in.

"Okay, so 6 to go."

"Banner returned to the end of the premises to calm down, so we are one guy short, so be on a constant lookout, guys." Maria continued sharing the information as she got it on her monitors.

"One more down," came in from Steve "All secured here, I will go back to the smart group in the closet."

"What the fuck is that? This doesn't look that 'theoretical' if you ask me." Came a voice, it was coming from Hawkeye.

"What is it," came the joined, concerned, question from Steve, Maria and Tony.

"It would seem to be a some kind of small midgardian fluffy monster," gathered Thor, a sight he was still processing.

"Can we keep it? It's so fluffy and cute!" asked Clint with a smirk that could be seen through the comms.

He was about to pick up the fluffy monster, when Natasha smacked his hand commenting on the fact that they did not know what it was - if it was dangerous.

"No! No one will touch the creature, Natasha please capture it in something that it fits in, before they manage to turn this so far successful mission into a total clusterfuck," Maria yelled with the most commanding voice she had, to make sure they did not do anything reckless.

"Found one HYDRA guy, he was hiding behind the boxes Banner crashed," Stark said, with his voice proud on his achievement, "4 left, maybe they got sick with the flu from the fluffy bunny or something."

"Okay, check all the premises once more to confirm that there is no one left and then gather up at the starting point with the survivors," came out the orders from the empty warehouse building.

"One of the lab techs managed to enter the panic button code before we got to him, so we lost all the files, but at least we got to him before he blew up the whole place," Natasha shared to the group as they did the final sweeps of the places. Thor was carrying the fluffy bunny - well it looked more like a combination of an ugly dog and a deer, with a hint of a bunny and a fluffy fur. It looked... odd, yet somehow it was cute.

As the 'all clear' calls came from the Avengers, they were ready to head home, the scene was ready for the clean-up crew. They would track down those four individuals after a good night sleep. The day had become to an evening, but the warmness of the day hadn't wear off. It had been a nice day. A successful mission for the Avenger.

As The Avengers gathered in the nearby woods they had started the mission from, Stark was all ready to head home. He had some minor bruises in his body from the missiles and bullets his suit had taken, but otherwise he was his tetchy self with a hint of proudness in him.

The rest of the Avengers had managed to not get hurt either, it was sometimes surprising how much they managed to avoid those injuries, all things considering, they had been in a massive battle and managed to get out on top of the bad guys, who were now dead or apprehended next to The Avengers. Those men would be taken to the SHIELD interrogation rooms and they would spill their guts out on one of the interrogators. Maybe they could share things about the stuff they had been doing there, maybe they could tell where the last four men were.

As The Deputy Director was finishing up packing the things, while Tony was rushing her on the comms, all hell break lose. She found those four men left undiscovered.

And while the gunfire was being exchanged she could hear The Avengers yell her name. And when it had stopped, she had noticed something. An innocent, a child was on the floor with her. With a shocked look on his face. "What the - how did you get here -," was all she could ask before she saw the fourth man. And then, on the spot she took the child. There was no way she would be the one to fuck up this mission. There was no way she would let a child die, if she could save him.

And so she jumped out of the building as the fourth man pressed the small button on the shaking hands that were holding a device, a bomb - a huge bomb. The Deputy Director would try to throw the child to the roof of the other building, even if it meant that she wouldn't be able to make it there. And then the world crumbled behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I suggest that after this chapter, you read the first one again, if you don't remember the events after this (well the 10 seconds that happened :D, since it's been so long I have updated this.)**
> 
> I know that there is no mention of the child in the first chapter, but as I got the idea later, after I had posted the first chapter, I tried to make it fit well to the events, and I'm kind of proud of how well I managed to fit it there. :D Well at least it makes sense in my own mind, with the first chapter - you know, now with a little more information (don't worry I will give you guys more in the next chapter) about what happened in those 10-15 seconds, I at least, can totally see the child in the first chapter. :D Am I making any sense?


	7. The hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hero that lies beneath us, before us. The hero that was forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm... It seems that as we get closer to the end, these chapters seem to get darker and darker - I wonder what's that all about. Enjoy.

_**Friday**_

They say that the heroes never die, but the thing is - they do. The heroes always die in the end. The only reason they are known to be heroes, is, because someone is left behind to tell their story - their sacrifice. That one person will make them heroes, in their own eyes, in their own mind. That person will whisper the tales to the wind, and the wind will listen.  
  
The wind will carry those tales to people, who wish to hear them - people who wish to believe in those heroes.  
  
But what happens to those heroes that don't have anyone left behind to tell their tales? What happens to the sacrifices they made? Who will tell their tales? Will those heroes still exist?  
  
Those are the heroes who fight, knowing that no one will be left to tell their story. Knowing that no one will know their sacrifices. No one will feel the pain they felt. No one will know about the last breath they took. No one.  
  
But those heroes still arise, knowing, that they have saved the world, that they did not die for nothing. They died for a good cause. To save an innocent, to save an animal, to save their loved ones, or a complete stranger.  
  
They take the pain, the suffering, the agony - they do it for the good of the world, for a purpose that could be heard in the thoughts of the others, seen in the evening wind rippling through the fields, the sea.  
  
The wind tells the tales of the lost souls. The wind spreads the tales of the heroes who have no one left.  
  
Those are the heroes lost at the endless sea, the rocks that couldn't float in the deep end of the water, the people lost in the destruction of the world.  
  
The people that the world has forgotten.  
  
The people that the time has consumed.  
  
The time, that has left them behind.  
  
The time that waits no one.  
  
Even if you are a hero.  
  
Even if you are a villain.  
  
Or just a person, lost in the time.  
  
A hero is a villain in someone else's mind. And a villain is a hero, for those who believe in them. That, thin, red line between those two is often broken and the balance is shaken.  
  
Those four men, the ones that were the final nail needed to complete the coffin, the curse, of the Deputy Director of SHIELD, are seen as heroes in the eyes of their people.  
  
They followed their directions, given orders, they did their jobs. They sacrificed themselves for the cause they believed in. And thus, they are heroes for the ones that wish to see them as such.  
  
The world might not see them as one, but for some, they are.  
  
  


\--

The day had been a normal one for the guards in the HYDRA lab. There was no exciting breakthroughs happening or anyone trying to snoop around the place. It was a normal week day. A Friday. They would have a weekend off, and they would get together to celebrate the warm day with beers and something good to eat after work.  
  
But then they had gotten the breach call. Then things had gotten serious. At that moment they knew they would not be enjoying the warm day any longer. They didn't have time to enjoy it. Their time was running out.  
  
But they had orders to follow, things to do in a situation like this. It was their job. And as the four men, in their clean, well maintained suits that fit them perfectly and made them look good, headed to their assigned position, they were scared. Scared of what was becoming ahead of them.  
  
Their job - making sure that no one got a hold of their backup files, files in the empty warehouse building, it had no guards as a distraction - it looked like a normal empty, abandoned building, and it was just that. But the things it hid in the covers of the walls, below the surface, were nothing but abandoned and empty.  
  
And their job was to make sure those hidden secrets would not get in the hands of SHIELD. HYDRA could always begin their experiments from scratch, as they had done so many times before - but they had to make sure that SHIELD did not know of the things they needed for the labs, the things they would do there, they needed to stay hidden in order for them to begin those things again, in a different location, with safety, knowing that the agents could not follow them there through the files, the items they needed, the people they needed. It was their duty to be the last resort, it would make them heroes in the eyes of the others.  
  
As they grouped at the assigned position, like they had rehearsed so many times before, the tallest one of them all took the leaders position. He didn't look like a bad guy, he looked like a normal man with a mission to complete. None of the men looked like killers, like they would do something bad to anyone. They were people. Human beings. And without those suits, they would have blended in with the rest of the people in the world. As normal, innocent people.  
  
But they were none of those things. Even if they were scared of the things they had to do, they still knew what they had signed in for. They knew what they had to do. And they did it.  
  
The leader told the three shorter man to follow him, they were only a couple of inches shorter but it was still a significant sight. The three guards followed and did as they were told.  
  
They went into one of the rooms in the back of the building they were in, and in the far end corner they stopped. There was nothing in there that could be seen with a naked eye. Nothing that would help them to destroy the files, or even get to the files.  
  
One of the men, he had a brown colored hair, that made his eyes pop with warmness as he looked at a person, that man opened one of the cabinets close by and took his gatherings with him, the bomb, he took his job with him. His mission. And that mission was to make sure no one would find the files. He would be the last one in the building - the last one alive. The last one to fulfill his duty.  
  
The guards checked their weapons, made sure they were ready to enter their last mission together. A mission they would not get out of alive. They knew that, and yet they did it anyways.  
  
Then the leader picked up a key from his pocket. They key was so small, it looked like it could be broken with just a small twist in the middle. As soon as he lift the key up, close to the wall next to the group, a door appeared in front of them. A door that could not be seen without the key. A door the HYDRA scientists had managed to create. A perfect plan for the mission. No one would know where they went. No one would know what they were doing. No one.  
  
The door opened with a small squeaking sound, and the men went inside. They would be heading a long rout below the floor, under the ground, without anyone noticing them. Their journey would take a half an hour before they would get to their final location. And then they had to wait, below the surface, just under the trapdoor, unseen without the key.  
  
There was a monitor. That monitor had one purpose. And the purpose was to make sure no one was left alive in the premises, before they started the last part of their mission. They would be the last resort. In case the others would not make it.  
  
The four men sat quietly on the cold concrete floor for hours. They watched as The Avengers torn apart their colleagues, their friends. The tension was arising, their blood was pumping with adrenaline. The air was so thin with await and nervousness, silence and worry about their friends, that if you dropped a small needle 15 feet away from them, they would hear it. That would break their minds, it would shatter their beliefs. It would make them crumble with the agony they saw in the eyes of the men dying. But they had their jobs, they had to fulfill their duty.  
  
And when they saw The Avengers gather in the far end of the premises, they knew it. It was time for the last mission they ever would be part of.  
  
The men looked at each other with sad eyes, they hated the feeling, that they would not be able to continue their lives, they hated the feeling of guilt in their stomachs as they arise from their seats. But they knew what they were about to do. They knew what they had signed in for. And they believed in their cause.  
  
As the leader, the tallest one of all of them, once again, one last time, took the key from his pocket, the trapdoor became visible, and he put the key in the lock. The second they heard the lock pop open, adrenaline filled their veins, they were on a suicide mission. They were to get from the ground floor to the empty third floor that contained the entrance for the mission archives, and then the smallest guy, one of the nicest looking people in the whole team, would take the key from his pocket. That key would make the archive door visible, and then the guy with the bomb, would do his job as the third, and the most normal looking guy, a guy that looked like he was in the wrong place at this given time, would make sure no one was left behind, including himself, to be interrogated. The science people in the labs, the ones that The Avengers had captured alive, didn't know anything so significant about the projects, they were told only the things they needed to know. To make sure no one could speak and tell things that should not be told.  
  
As the leader of the group opened the trapdoor above his head, fresh air trundled to their faces, light filled their fields of vision, and they climbed the stairs to the ground floor.  
  
As quiet as possible. Then they took their places, they formed the grouping that they had rehearsed. The leader was first, the small guy with the key to the new door was second, the third with the hardest job of all was behind him and the last one, the guy with the bomb was keeping the stern.  
  
They climbed the 45 stairs, as they had counted many times before, to the third floor. And then things had taken a wrong turn.  
  
One of the guys had seen a child going through the stairs to the last floor of the building. The guards, soldiers stopped at their tracks, just for a split second, and looked at one another. Were they really doing this? Were they going to kill a child?  
  
Then they heard a woman's voice. And they knew. It was a SHIELD agent, they had to do their job, SHIELD would bring down the whole place to make sure they did not miss anything, and they would find them at one point sooner or later.  
  
The men strode in the third floor and began the gunfire. The man with the bomb was left behind, he had to make sure he would not die before he could blow up the place. But as he saw his team mates go down, one by one, his friends taking their last breath, he no longer cared.  
  
He took the steps, he saw the child, the scared child that had done nothing bad to the world, the child who would not get to grow old, and then he finished his job. He saw the woman take the child to her hands, to cover him, to save him, and then he pressed the button. He could feel the heat, see the lights, smell the reeking smell, but only for a moment, and then it was all over. He had done his job, his mission.  
  
  


\--

As the explosion shattered the building, the ground started shaking. The scene was so horrendous, just a couple of seconds ago everything had been fine, everyone had been ready to go home. And then things had changed. The Avengers were still so dumbfounded of the events that the only thing they knew to do, was run towards Maria.

After the first shock had passed, they began to process the scene before their eyes.

The Iron Man yelled, "Guys did you see that? She threw something to the roof. Jarvis rewind the footage, please."

"As you wish, sir."

"It seems that the Deputy Director assisted a young man to safety, Mr. Stark." JARVIS commented with his ever so calm voice.

And just on that spot they heard it. "Hey it's The Avengers! Could you get me down from here, the stairs look scary."

Natasha had started running towards the woods, she had to get the Quinjet, fast, so they had a chance of getting everyone alive back home.

Clint was left behind, he was looking at the prisoners, looking for any more disturbance, his eyes still at Maria, who was lying on the ground unmoving.

Tony was flying towards the building still intact. He would get the scared child to safety of the ground. The others would make sure Maria was going to be alright, he had his job, too.

Steve, Dr. Banner - who had returned to the group second before the events, and had managed not to turn into the green monster, just barely though, were with Thor taking care of Maria.

Deputy Director Maria Hill was lying on the ground, unmoving, she was unresponsive, but with Steve yelling her name, holding her hand, holding her wounds, Thor clearing room for Dr. Banner to work, and others doing their jobs around them, they managed to get her to the Quinjet that landed next to the pile of rocks soon after. And then there was nothing they could do before they got everyone to safety. Nothing but look at the woman, lying still at the floor of the Quinjet, Steve holding her hand, and the child she had saved just minutes ago, sitting next to him, crying, scared, filled with fear. Fear that could be seen in each of The Avengers, the frightened looks they had on their faces, the care that was seen in their eyes, all that for the woman lying beside them, silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up as soon as I have re-read it to make sure everything is ready. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. Sorry about the next one, in advance, once again.


	8. The promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The promise once made. Was is about to be broken?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this is for **CaptainHillShipper,** who wished for Steve to kiss Maria in the comments.  
>  Just a little warning however... Umm.. Yeah... Like... Really....... I'm so sorry guys...

_**Saturday**_

After Director Fury and rest of the Avengers had departed to do their jobs once again, Steve was left behind. He sat down next to the hospital bed where the Agent was laying still after the surgery. She looked peaceful. Like nothing could disturb her resting. It was almost as if she had drifted far, far away - to the land of hope and trust of better.  
  
It was unsettling.  
  
He looked around the room for any signs of disturbance, and when he was sure there was none, he rested his hand gently next the smaller, softer hand that was covered with plaster cast. Her other hand had an IV drip, that was slowly doing its job.  
  
He looked at her chest as it slowly but evenly took more air into her damaged lungs, letting go of the old, used air at the same time. He could hear nothing, but the machines beeping on the other side of the bed. He could see, feel and hear the ventilator doing its job next to the beeping sound. The sound of steadiness - sound of uncertain heartbeats that could end at any given moment.  
  
"After Tony got the kid down from the rooftop and he saw the destroyed building, he ran to your side and wouldn't let go of your hand, even when he was told you would be OK, several times. They had to force him to let go when they took you to the surgery. I promised him I would take over his duty. I promised him I would make sure you would be OK. That I would never let go of your hand." Steve said with a voice that had so much despair and grief in it. The words hurt his every muscle. Every breath he took had so much pain in it. Every blink he made with his eyes was more and more difficult. He could not breath, feel or see anything without her. The world was coming crashing down slowly.  
  
He took Maria's hand, gently, making sure he didn't hurt her in any way.  
  
He then looked at the face that was covered in small cuts, the face that still looked so beautiful, yet so frail.  
  
He placed his free hand on Maria's cheek. He tucked a tress of her hair behind her ear. It that had dropped over her closed, yet so beautiful eyes.  
  
Eyes that looked so weak, so out of place.  
  
So.. fragile.  
  
Slowly - lightly, just to make sure she was still there, that she wouldn't be going anywhere, he lowered his gaze back to her hand.  
  
As he mildly lift it up, just an inch, just to keep her from leaving him behind, he kissed her hand. A kiss that was something he wished he could do more. A kiss he wished she could return.  
  
A kiss he hoped she could feel.  
  
He hoped she could feel the pain in the kiss, the hopelessness he was feeling. That she would come back to him. Just like they had always promised to each other.  
  
He hoped that the single kiss could heal her wounds. But the kiss couldn't.  
  
There was nothing he could do for her at the moment, only make her job easier, if... when she would come back.  
  
She had to come back. She had to.  
  
Time would heal her wounds, doctors would do their best to keep her alive until that time would come. They would make sure she was going to be fine.  
  
Not for him.  
  
For the world. The world needed her.  
  
He needed her.  
  
As much as he tried not to be selfish, he really did, but he needed her.  
  
He needed her to be alright.  
  
He wanted to tell the kid that she was OK, so badly. He wanted to be able to tell himself that she was OK.  
  
To tell her she was OK.  
  
When his lips left the comforting warmness of her fingers, a small, faint tear filled with powerlessness and longing fell down his cheek.  
  
A tear he had hold on for so long.  
  
A tear he had kept inside for so many hours. Ever since he had seen her fell through the air. When he couldn't do anything to help her.  
  
To save her.  
  
A tear that almost fell down when she hit the ground. When he felt like all he could do, was fall apart.  
  
He tried.  
  
He tried so hard to keep himself going. To go back to work, to keep saving the world, to keep doing what he did best. To go back to the world that had not stopped at its tracks, but instead had kept going through the destruction. The time hadn't stopped for them.  
  
The world had no idea of the pain he was feeling deep down. The pain he was feeling in his mind, his heart - every part of his body. The world would never know.  
  
As he felt another tear leaving his eyes, he crashed.  
  
He fell apart.  
  
He put his lips back against the warm, damaged hand - the small fingers that gave him so much comfort. He closed his eyes.  
  
He couldn't leave her.  
  
He would stay there. Make sure she would be OK. To make sure she would not stop breathing.  
  
To make sure she would not drift away, even if the world hadn't stopped to wait for her as she was starting to fall behind.  
  
The spinning of the world had not stopped for her, but if had for him. The world had stopped at its tracks for him. He had to make sure she wouldn't let go of the world. That she would get back on the fragile tracks.  
  
Back to him.  
  
He would wait there.  
  
For her.  
  
Keep the world still, until she was ready to get back.  
  
But he couldn't stay there forever. He had to get back to work. He had to keep the world safe, for her - just until she got back to the duty herself.  
  
After a while - when the tears had stopped pouring his cheeks, when the tears had made a small puddle next to her hand, he let go. He let go of her hand, once again. He didn't want to, but he had to. They would get through this. Together. Like always. He couldn't break down. He had to keep going. He had to trust that she would be alright. That she wouldn't leave him.  
  
He would keep the world still, just enough for her to return.  
  
As he stood up from the comforting chair that had became a sort of sanctuary for him - he knew that if he sat there long enough, everything would be alright - or at least he hoped that.  
  
He wiped his face with his roughened hand. The hand was already missing the warmness of hers. He listened for a while at the doorway, holding his hand on the door handle. She was still there. She would get back. She would be alright.  
  
As he opened the door, his ears filled with the sounds of the world. The lights of the world, the smell of the world, everything the world had to offer. All the chaos the world had to offer. The world had not stopped to wait for them. The world had kept going.  
  
She had to keep going too.  
  
She had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking of ending it here, but then I felt like it wasn't complete yet, so now I have a new chapter to follow this one - the last one. Okay, uhm... Sorry about the last one in advance.


	9. The end of the light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We have reached the end of our journey. The end of the week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY.

The funeral would be in a month. They had lost many good men during that week, many good women. The funerals would not bring those lost souls back. It would not bring peace to their friends, their co-workers, not for them - it would not bring peace to the SHIELD employees. But hopefully it would give some closure to their families, their loved ones. For the people, who had been there when the soldiers had came to their houses, when they had told them that their son - their daughter - mother - father - sister or brother, had died serving their country, serving the world.  
  
Maria Hill had no one they could tell those words to. The only person they could tell those words to already knew them. Those words had already crushed him. The words had filled him with agony as he fell down, as he shattered.  
  
He was only a human after all.  
  
Maria Hill had hoped she would get a family someday, people who cared if she ever lived. People who cared when she died.  
  
But she didn't have a family.  
  
Yet.  
  
She still had time.  
  
But for now, she had to get better so she could be there at the funerals. She had to be there. She had to give closure to the families. It was her duty, her responsibility. It was her obligation to give the families a reason why their loved ones had died.  
  
Why they would never see them again.  
  
Why the world had taken them away without any warning. Why the world hadn't stopped for them. Why the world had kept going. Why they had to keep going.  
  
She had to give those families a reason to keep going.  
  
  


___

The hospital room was filled with chairs. It was filled with people. But the room was still so quiet. There was no sound to be heard. The anticipation hovering in the air was so thick, it could almost be touched. The people around the hospital bed seemed anxious, but their bodies seemed to began relaxing a little - moment by moment - just a little bit every second they saw everything she, Maria Hill, did before their eyes.

Their eyes - those delightful, colorful eyes around the room, they seemed concerned, worried - relieved, but yet so uneasy, their breaths were heavy, slow and unsteady - they were waiting.

The eyes of the people around the room was a lot to take in, they were so unusual, they cared, they looked so tired. Was everything alright? Had someone got hurt-?

"Kid" Maria wrote on the board with her shaky hand. She had a questioning look of concern on her face. She looked at each of the Avengers in turn, she looked at Fury, and then her eyes locked with Steve's beautiful eyes. Even then no one answered her.

Her body was aching. She could not talk because of the oxygen mask - her lungs still needed help. She needed help. She was trapped in that hospital bed, she would be for a long time.

She started to move her head up, started to lift her arm so she could smack Tony, who was closest to her better hand, but she couldn't - it hurt too much.

She had wrote, one, simple word on the board. And no one had answered her. A simple question. All she had asked was, if the kid was alright. If the child she had tried to save with all her of willpower, all of her strength, had made it to the rooftop. If he was alive.

The second she had remembered the events, she had hoped that she hadn't jumped out of the window for nothing. Maria Hill had hoped that the last thing she had felt, nothingness, was a feeling the child had not felt that day. A feeling that would consume her once again, if he hadn't made it.

She had asked if she had done something good that week. Something she could remember over all the bad things that had happened during that dreadful week.

If her luck had finally changed.

If the curse had finally passed.

If she had saved the young, innocent child. The child that deserved to live more than she did.

It was Tony who spoke first. "Oh, the kid that we had no idea of even existing before he yelled from the rooftop to get him down, because he was too scared to use the stairs by himself? The kid, who said you were a crazy lady who threw him out of a window, just because he ran up to see the fireworks he heard? You know, when I told you to get your ass down from the building, I didn't exactly mean it like that, like wow-" he babbled gesturing her whole body.

At this moment Steve cut in with a more serious tone, his eyes still locked into hers, his hand holding her hand, holding tight. His voice was earnest, but it was filled with relief - every breath he took relieved his pain, his agony, his worry, "Yeah, the kid is perfectly fine, a couple of small cuts and bruises here and there and a story to tell his friends. But yeah, he will be just fine. Just like you will, because I love you, you know that, don't you?"

Just like she would.

Maybe she would die in an another battle, at an another time. If she had to die, she hoped the Avengers would be there. She hoped that the last thing she would be doing, was argue with the Avengers - she preferred it to be Stark. After all, that was what she did best with Stark. And after all this time, all the things they had been through, she hoped that the Avengers would be there at her funeral when the day would come.

They were her family, and she knew they would be alright. They would keep saving the world, even after she couldn't anymore. They would be there for the world. They would be there to keep the world on its tracks. For her. For her memory. They would keep the world safe, just like she had all these years. Just like she would keep doing, until the day she couldn't anymore. They would be there for Steve, for when she had to break the promise they had made to one another - they both knew the promise would need be broken at some point, but she wished it would take a lifetime for it to be.

The Avengers would be there for Steve. For the world. Just like she would be, until the day she would join the building, into nothingness.

But that day wasn't here. Not yet.

But then, just like that, the pen fell off the fragile, damaged hand that had lost all its power, the power it had possessed only a split second ago, and then she knew it. That day was here, after all.

She would have to break the promise first. Too soon, way too soon. She would be joining in to the afterlife with those lost souls, the souls in the harmony of the wind going through the fields, the ones telling the tales of the heroes who have no one left.

She would die, she had known that the second she had jumped through the window to save the child, she had known that, and she had done it anyways - because it was her duty, her mission, her order and her promise to the world, to the wind. She knew that the nothingness would consume her once again, this time permanently.

The world had not stopped to wait for her. Steve had made the world slow down, just long enough for her to stay on the tracks, but she was falling behind, she couldn't keep up with the pace of the world. She was running out of time. And the time waits no one - even if you are a hero, lost in the destruction of the world.

The lost souls in the wind, they were in the room with her, with the Avengers, they were keeping a place for her, she would join in them, she could stay there, by their side. She would not be alone when she would take her last breath. Those souls would make sure she was alright. That she would see all of the friends she had lost during that week, during her life. She would see her mother for the first time. She knew she would.

She could forgive herself, at last.

She would make sure that Steve was going to be alright. She would make sure the tears in his eyes would be seen, the true meaning of those tears. That the tears in her eyes, too, would not be unseen amongst the living.

Her fears would stop their journey, the nightmares would fade away, the pain would turn into affection, the agony into peace.

The faith of the world was no longer a burden in her shoulders. That child had survived, he was alright.

Maybe that child would save the world one day, maybe he would take over her duty - keep the world safe for the others, who couldn't do that on their own. She would be there - in the wind, making sure his pain, his agony and sacrifices would be seen, making sure he would be alright when the time would come for him to leave the world behind. Just like she would be there for the Avengers, for Steve - making sure they would be okay, that they hadn't lived for nothing, that their lives were meaningful, just like hers had been. She would make sure that someone cared if they lived, when they died - she would be there to whisper their tales to the people who wished to hear them, just like the souls before and after her would.

As she looked around the room, the Avengers were there with her. Just like she had hoped. They were there with her, when she took her last breath, and the last thing she saw, was her family.

Just like she had hoped.

She didn't feel alone anymore. She had managed to do the impossible. She felt like she belonged, like she had a family. They would care when she died. They cared when she had lived. She just hadn't noticed it before.

And as her eyes met Steve's for the last time, he could see it - he could see the peacefulness in her eyes, there was no fear left in those beautiful eyes.

She gave him one, last smile, just to tell him she loved him with all of her heart, that she was his and he was hers. And as that faint smile fade away, she was ready.

One, last time, the oxygen mask was filled with warm air that blurred the round edges of the transparent mask, and then it fade away. One, last time she saw the colors of the world, the beautiful sight before her eyes.

She heard the Avengers yell her name, one last time, as she gave in to the darkness, in to the nothingness she was becoming. She was no longer lost in the destruction of the world. She had become the soft, tender wind in the evening, the warm, luminous light in the summer going through the fields of the people, telling the tales of the heroes to the people who wished to hear them.

As her eyes closed, she gave in to the nothingness, but this time the nothingness would fill her with longing, peace and hope. The child had survived. Her curse was finally broken.

**"THE LOST, THE CURSE, THE PLAN, THE WAIT - THE HOPE, THE FIGHT, THE HERO, THE PROMISE - THE END OF THE LIGHT."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't plan on ending it like this, I promise - it kind of... just.... happened. I was going back an forth with the -does she die or not - thing and then I was like, no she doesn't and started to write this, but then my hand slipped to the dark side. Hope you guys enjoyed the story. It was fun to write. Thank you for sticking with me till the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so i might, or might not write other chapters to this - about the events leading to this, and of course the events after this. I have couple of ideas in mind, but i'm not entirely sure. What do you guys think?  
> ______________________________
> 
> Okay so i have decided to continue this story. I have 2 chapters ready out of 6-8. I've decided to get them all done (well at least most of them) before posting them here. SO BE PATIENT WITH ME GUYS.


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